Video: New vehicle registration series to be introduced

7 August 2012 12:46 am - 39 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

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The Department of Motor Traffic is to introduce a new vehicle registration, combination with three English letters for three-wheelers, Commissioner General of Motor Traffic S. H. Harischandra said.

The Department replaced the first vehicle registrations – the ‘Sri’ series, with ‘dash’ series – with two English letter series and will now introduce the three letter series, the Commissioner further said.

Three-wheelers will be issued these new registration numbers till the current two-letter registration ends, he said.
Since August 1 2000 to June 30, 2012 the department had issued 3,046,008 vehicles with the English letter series.

With the introducing of the new letter series the department can issue 6.4 million registration numbers and the number issuing process could be conducted on a long term process. Also the identification of the numbers will be easy, he said.

“As soon as the current two English letter numbering process is over they will introduce the new method to the other vehicles,” he further said.
The fee for the registrations will be the same. (ISA)

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Comments - 39

Chris Tuesday, 07 August 2012 09:54 AM

It is true that people are earning a living on three wheelers but it also has become a menace to the public. They break the law from morning till nigh,the young generations thinks nothing else but buying a three wheeler after they complete grade 8.At this rate we will become a nation of three wheel drivers. This ruins the income of the people who realy earn a living. There should be some kind of a regulation issuing licences.Right now there are about 700,000 wheelers on the roads and bringing in more is going to become a big chaos sooner or later due to unruly driving by most of them.

geriatrix Tuesday, 07 August 2012 05:40 AM

As i understood.....

2 English letter numbering spanned for 12 years issued 3Million vehicles....

the using 3 English letter numbering will issue 6.4 Million vehicles... so using math wont this get exhausted in 24 years?? so which means in 2036 again it will get changed!!!

Lion Tuesday, 07 August 2012 06:40 AM

I believe Indian's method is more suitable for us...

mfx Tuesday, 07 August 2012 06:45 AM

what it is

MMSB. Tuesday, 07 August 2012 07:56 AM

Don't give number to the vehicle. Give to the owner of the vehicle. Then we can identify real owners as well as illegal using. Because they feeling that number is belongs to me. They never going to do wrong things. Police also be easy to do job.

Andrew Adams Tuesday, 07 August 2012 08:07 AM

I meant to say 160 million

Sri Lankan Tuesday, 07 August 2012 08:20 AM

ok its these 3whelers that cause so much in convenience to the rest of the road users, being reckless, offensive and un disciplined....also its the most unsafe public transporter on the roads...

Anura Tuesday, 07 August 2012 08:27 AM

Village people:- father used to work in the paddy field or crops cultivation. Now his son has sold or pawned the land of the house and waiting doing nothing at the junction with a three Wheeler. Very Productive younger generation in Sri Lanka. real national problem brewing here.

Vernon Tuesday, 07 August 2012 08:55 AM

This Dept was never forward thinking. When they first introduced, only the province could be identified, not the type of vehicle, or fuel used etc. Then they introduced marking to denote the difference at different times. Any right thinking person wold have thought of all possible eventualities, when introducing a new series, not just to overcome the present problem. When 3 letter series is introduced, it should be possible to register 26x26x26x9999 = 175,742,424 vehicles. Please devise the system so that most of details of vehicle could be identified by the number of that vehicle.

Saman Tuesday, 07 August 2012 09:26 AM

Not just Canada ! most countries follow the same. your car plate is identity. Its Good to have that way So people wont measure you by Car Number plate !

Andrew Adams Tuesday, 07 August 2012 05:40 AM

This is a classic case of lost in translation. He said 6.4 million per series. It's roughly 160 billion registration numbers in total with the new scheme

ishan Tuesday, 07 August 2012 10:39 AM

how about a system based on year of registration - type of vehicle - vehicle number.

So 12 C 1234

Categories with more than 9999 registrations a year can have a 5 digit number while the rest of us remain with 4. Best thing about this is it will last 99 years - which is more than the life of any vehicle or person - and with upto 26 categories.

If and when we need more than 9999 registrations a year, it can be expanded to 99999 from that year on, without the need for an overhaul.

Alternatively the vehicle no can include letters so say 99AA for 54,756 vehicles in each category each year.

Gaz Tuesday, 07 August 2012 10:57 AM

you have a point terence but dont forget the majority who dont have vehicles travel in a three-wheelers. so stopping imports is not the answer, we should disciplined these drivers, bring strict rules...

Shaik Ahamath Tuesday, 07 August 2012 12:38 PM

It is not all that important to identify instantly a vehicle's year of manufacture or if it's petrol driven or not. There is technology already available for instant number recognition (ANPR) as used effectively in UK. The system instantly displays on a monitor in the police car, a plethora of information including if it's licensed, passed its emission test, insured etc. The police could deal with any violators on the spot.

Amarapala Tuesday, 07 August 2012 12:56 PM

Can someone tell how to change the brain of these politicians.

rajiv Tuesday, 07 August 2012 05:51 PM

Trying to combine the type of vehicle type (3wheel, Motor Car, Lorry, Dual Purpose) by allocating different alphabet is incorrect. They should have a prefix field like P- for Petrol and D- for Diesel.

The Computer software needs to be changed due to each time altering the number length.

The best suitable number should be PR - YY - X99 - 9999 - PC

PR - Province
YY - Year (2 Digit is sufficient since a vehicle will not last 99 Yrs)
X99- English Letter with 0-99 (A01 - A99, B01-..)
9999- 4 Digit Number
P - Petrol/Diesel
C - Motor Car (C) Three Wheel - (T) Lorry (L) likewise

This method will be ideal to detect any vehicle type.

Trehan Munasinghe Tuesday, 07 August 2012 06:54 PM

Firstly the article above shows the true situation of the country..
1./ No future for younger generation - wants to drive 3wheeler at 18 yrs
2./ Vehicle registration should have either 4 letters and 5 numbers... will last longer... ( Wp AAAA - 00001)
3./ Reduce the vehicle tax and promote people to buy either two wheel or 4wheel for personal use with a suitable usage tax for personal vehicle users, instead of having this high purchase tax & improve public transport island-wide
4./ Restrict the importing of 3 wheelers or promote a suitable alternative 4 wheel local car or Nano.

Kumara Wednesday, 08 August 2012 03:18 AM

Dr Roshan Dassenaiek's proposal seems to be sensible !!!

Savvy Wednesday, 08 August 2012 04:37 AM

Majority of drivers have no license? Did you do an empirical research or are you just talking from the top of your head. Try not to ass-u-me...

someone Wednesday, 08 August 2012 08:09 AM

Great way to earn some cash to the government

Savvy Tuesday, 07 August 2012 03:35 AM

@terence - You will also notice that every 3-wheeler is carrying passengers. Those who cannot afford a vehicle, young mothers with kids, elders getting their errands run...surely, their convenience is not of concern...

terence Tuesday, 07 August 2012 01:48 AM

It is noted that the roads are flooded with 3 wheelers.
Stop at any point on a highway and look around, one can count 12 to 15, 3whelers plying about

It's about time the authorities stop future import of 3Wheelers for a period of time..

ABC Tuesday, 07 August 2012 01:57 AM

Three wheelers have gone into the realm of being a menace now. You can't have a proper drive on the road without checking your rear view mirrors a million times, you have no parking space and you can't even reverse without knocking on one of these damned pests.

Dr Roshan Dassenaiek Tuesday, 07 August 2012 02:35 AM

The problem with all the vehicle numbering systems in Sri Lanka so far has been after a time they run out of numbers mainly due to the lack of foresight on the part of the planners. I propose that they implement a system where the year of registration is also included. For Example;
YY LN XXXX
Where
YY is the year of registration, if the year is 2012 YY = 12
LN is an English letter followed by a number, for say petrol cars the letter would be A, for diesel cars the number would be B, for vans C and so on. The number following the letter (N) would go from 1 to 2 once the four digit number (XXXX) reaches 9999.
For example a petrol car registered in 2012 would have number like 12 A1 2345
This system won’t run out until the year 2099.
Hope the commissioner of motor vehicles takes note of this and acts accordingly.

Sarneris Tuesday, 07 August 2012 02:58 AM

Someone is going to make a lot of money with this.

And of course the price will be the same as before for the first few days.

lalith Tuesday, 07 August 2012 03:13 AM

what about politicians unregistered vehicles???

Haffie Tuesday, 07 August 2012 03:19 AM

Well said. The 3 wheelers have become a great menace to road safety. There never follow the road rules and mojority of the drivers have no valid licence.

Nodrog Tuesday, 07 August 2012 03:14 AM

First stop issuing bogus licences to unqualified drivers who are the main cause for accidents and traffic congestion.

Citizen Tuesday, 07 August 2012 03:17 AM

Well well... we see the short slightness every day. The 2 letter English method was introduced in 1999. 13 years and a new system again.I'm not entirely sure about the calculations about the number of vehicles.
Since we stared with GA = 20x26x10000 = 5,200,000
Vehicles can be registered with the existing system. Even if we reserve K for cars,L for lorries,N for buses there more left

Aiyo salli Tuesday, 07 August 2012 03:39 AM

Three wheelers are a menace.

Cyclops Tuesday, 07 August 2012 01:44 AM

Somewhere there is a kickback waiting!!!!

Sri Lankan Tuesday, 07 August 2012 03:42 AM

A minor thing we couldn't plan since Independence. more than 5 (five) different methods of registering Motor Vehicles.
First A to Z
Then CEYLON series CE CY CL CN EY EL etc.
Thereafter Sri in late 1950s
and late 1980's " - " replaces Sri
Then Two English Nos. starting GA with Provincial identification. .
After some time "P" "D" identification for fuel use added half way.

Keeping DP series to Diplomatic registration , later use DP insted of Province.

Now another change ?

This type of planers will expedite our achievement of becoming the Miracle or Wonder of Asia.

Rif Tuesday, 07 August 2012 04:02 AM

why do use like in Canada
No can be select by owner , that that is with him for any vehicle
when want to sell his vehicle , he can sell it but he can use that no for his new Vehicle ,
very good system in Canada
why we follow that

The Man Tuesday, 07 August 2012 03:56 AM

who needs 'ASS 0001' ??

john Tuesday, 07 August 2012 03:55 AM

Very true, but the irony is that, when you want a free three wheeler you cant find one !!

Dadoriya Tuesday, 07 August 2012 04:20 AM

There is no planing in this country. How may time the numbering system has been changed. Inefficiency or shortsightedness or both.

Jeevan Tuesday, 07 August 2012 04:15 AM

You know how many people are making a living with it? Govt should give loans to the people to find self employment means! Other thing, you know who come to help you when your vehicle breaks down in the middle of the road? Not those who are cruising in cars!

lankaputha Tuesday, 07 August 2012 05:06 AM

this stupid department charged 3500 from me to change the number plate of a Permit vehicle to a normal vehicle. Just to change the color of the letter "P" which I was wondering in which place they store the color of the plate too. Hilarious.

Dera Tuesday, 07 August 2012 05:10 AM

A move which could possibly be aimed at ripping off the general citizens of the country, by imposing another registration type...nothing else, i don't see any value in doing this...

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Video: New vehicle registration series to be introduced

Comments - 39

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